A Fire Shall Be Woken
by sapphireswimming
Summary: Dragon AU. Dragon hunting rarely went according to plan.
**This idea's been developing in my head since last March (I would say this proves that I need to actually keep up with my ideas, but the stronger argument is that there are partly written fics from 2011 still laying in my documents folder, aha).**

 **Anyway, I'd made some picsets of Medieval Dragon Hunter Tucker based upon his role in Beauty Marked for last year's Tucker Appreciation Week (tumblr tag "lovetucker2k15" if you wanted to see) and decided that I needed something in fic form too.**

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 **A Fire Shall Be Woken  
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April 3, 2016

Happy 12th Dannyversary

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Tucker glanced around again, just to persuade himself he was on the right track. All the signs still pointed to the dragon's lair being somewhere nearby. He'd seen the broken treetops— sliced off raggedly as the retreating creature slammed gracelessly into tree after tree in its attempted escape— and the splintered logs and gouged ditches from where it fell to earth.

Dragons could be surprisingly discreet for their size, though. Even wounded, if they weren't dripping a gleaming trail of sickly colored ichor onto the forest floor, there wasn't much for most people to go on.

That's why most people didn't try to become dragon hunters.

Well, that and the low life expectancy. Getting fried to a crisp or having your arm or head clawed off if you did manage to track the thing seemed to balance out the incentive of getting paid insanely high amounts of money if you did manage to make it back to town with proof of a kill.

But Tucker had managed to survive this long, despite being best friends with the son of the only dragon hunters on the planet who preferred to drag their quarry home alive instead of dealing with it before it could escape and start wreaking havoc again.

Maybe it was fate.

But hey, at least it meant he knew what he was doing. And how he knew he was going in the right direction.

There had been a little blood at the crash site— a dark purple stain against the orange and red of the fallen leaves— but not as much as he'd hoped. The smudges didn't result in a trail for long, and he'd walked the rest of the way with nothing to go on except for the occasional claw mark on a tree that honestly could have been there for weeks.

Pushing through bare brittle branches that got it his way, Tucker plowed ahead, snapping twigs that threatened to catch in his sleeve or— heaven forbid— his bowstring.

A whole lotta good it would do him if it snapped and he only managed to find the dragon with his bow out of commission.

He did have the miniature crossbow strapped to his leg, but that was mostly for the comfort of having a secondary weapon. It took nearly half a minute to load and if he was in dire enough straits to use it, he probably wouldn't have a chance to fire twice, even if the thing did pack a pretty solid punch.

Carefully untangling the tip of his bow from each branch as he passed, Tucker made his way ahead slowly, and tried not to worry about falling too far behind his target. The tree in front of him looked newly felled, though, and he didn't know what else would be this far into the forest knocking down trees for the fun of it.

Sighing, Tucker hopped up onto the tree trunk— nearly as tall as he was— and scuttled over the top until he could drop down on the other side. The legwork was honestly the worst part about the whole process— give him a dragon that came straight to him any day, and forget this whole tracking nonsense. Although that seemed to be Danny's gift, not his, and he'd seen the way it backfired often enough to not really envy him being a draconic magnet.

He'd just have to go find them the normal way, then. But this would all be a lot of work for nothing, if he didn't get a big payoff.

Especially when he'd left Valerie alone at the festival after weeks of dogging her every step and pleading for her to give him a chance.

He grimaced. Well. Too late now even if he went back to apologize empty handed.

Hopefully, though, he'd come back with a gruesome scaly trophy and be much richer at the end of the day. Rich enough to keep him stocked with better equipment, and hopefully enough to buy Valerie a gift as an apology that was worthy of her rank.

At the very least, there would be meat on the table for a long time to come, and that was worth almost anything.

Even shoving his way through a wall of prickly evergreens barring his path. Ducking between the thick branches and getting a handful of sticky sap for his troubles, Tucker finally tumbled out into some long grass.

He'd come into a small clearing protected by the beginning of the foothills. He hadn't realized he'd come this far, but if he turned to the left, he could see the forest stretching out across the undulating valley toward the water. Amity— and the festival— were out of sight behind him, now.

The wind began whipping past him now that he was out in the open, although the air wasn't as cold as he expected for an autumn evening in the foothills. He peered around, shading his eyes as the sun skimmed the top of the tree line, looking for some clues as to where to go next.

The clearing was empty, and there were no obvious signs of damage caused by wounded dragon's descent or a wildly swung tail. In fact, besides the broken branches behind him, there didn't seem to be any evidence of disturbance, although he couldn't imagine that he'd completely misread the signs.

Tucker was about to start walking the length of the field in search of something— a section of dented grass, grooves of upturned earth— when he stopped and sniffed the air. Smoke, although they were too far from the town for it to carry, and a quick glance around assured him that he hadn't missed a nearby campfire.

A second later, the smell turned sharper, more burning than smoking now. The acidic tang clinging to the back of his throat was unmistakable, and Tucker realized that the whistling wasn't just the wind.

Dragon.

Without wasting time looking for the creature, Tucker unslung his bow, swinging it into position with practiced ease as he reached back for an arrow a second later. He put it to the string and notched it back and still further back until the fletching touched his ear.

The string was taut and his arms firm as he drew sight on the deceivingly peaceful glad before him. There was nothing there now but he could hear the angry swirl of wings and steam and approaching death.

He'd be ready the moment it appeared.

As it came closer, the trees around him began to sway with the force of the wind. It would be here any minute now, sounding like a storm as it appeared above the trees.

Tucker planted his feet more firmly in the ground and waited, holding his breath when he lined up on what he guessed was about to be a perfect shot— aiming at the neck of the valley where the trees opened up. Right where he bet the beast would show itself as it passed over.

Eyes narrowed as the noise grew louder, until it sounded like shouting, and he braced himself further against the wind.

Any second now…

The dragon appeared overhead, a dark writhing mass silhouetted against the yellowing sky. Tucker trained on it with honed precision, adjusting his stance to adjust for the still flying dragon and the wind that would no doubt interfere with his arrow's trajectory.

Still. He would hit it, and a wounded, earthed dragon was much easier to dispatch than one in the air.

He knocked the arrow back another fraction of an inch before letting it fly. It spun up into the air toward the creature but Tucker didn't have a chance to follow it to its destination.

Someone yelled his name just when the dragon let out a roar and Tucker turned in surprise toward the noise just in time to get bowled over. On instinct, he threw his bow away so he didn't snap it in two when he landed, then fell roughly to the ground, the tall grass doing little to cushion his fall, especially when something landed heavily on top of him.

He "oofed" as the wind got knocked out of him, then ungently shoved away whatever was on top of him. He groaned as he curled up on his side for a moment, protecting his bruised muscles from further abuse, but knowing he had to roll out of it and onto his feet in order to do anything about the dragon or this new threat.

The thing he pushed off of him groaned too, and Tucker cracked an eye open in surprise as he recognized the noise. Heard it practically every day.

Frantically pushing off the ground, he reached over to grab his best friend's arm. "Danny?" he asked, bewildered. "Danny, what are you doing?" He hauled him up and put a hand on each shoulder, trying to figure out what was going on. How he'd gotten there. Why he'd thought it was a good idea to interrupt him in the middle of a dragon hunt-

Dragon. The dragon was still out there and now that he'd shot it, the thing would be angry and even more dangerous than before. They didn't have any time to waste.

His bow was only a few feet away and he pushed away from Danny to grab it, breathing a sigh of relief when it didn't appear to be damaged.

"Come on," he said, already looking across the field.

The dragon hadn't landed in the clearing, but he could see the damage it had caused when it dipped into the edge of the tree line, breaking trees in half with the sheer weight of impact. If it had come that far down to earth, chances were it was on the ground now, and not far away. Hidden in the trees.

But Danny grabbed him as he started after it. "No," he started, still breathless from their tumble, "Tucker!"

Tucker tried to shake off his hold, snapping, "We don't have time for this."

The dragon roared and both boys turned toward the noise, paling a bit at the sound rooted them firmly to the ground.

"We gotta… go," Tucker mumbled, even though his feet didn't do more than twitch beneath him for a few tense seconds.

Then there was an awful crash, and the trees across from them seemed to _move_ before they realized that they were splintering, crashing, and being uprooted as the dragon came toward them.

Cursing, Tucker tried to take a strong stand, fumbling to snatch the next arrow out of his quiver and fit it to the string. As he started to lift his bow, however, Danny pushed it to the side with a frantic, "No!"

Tucker frowned. Eyes glanced at the monstrous shape quickly dragging itself across the clearing. The shining purple scales, the harsh ebony of the clawed wings it dragged behind it. It was fight or flight and they were running out of time for either. But this would be the clearest shot he was likely to get, so Tucker raised his bow again.

Danny actually ran to stand in front of him, this time, before grabbing the bow and trying to wrestle it away from. "No, you can't!"

"Have you lost your mind?" Tucker gasped, eyes widening as he gauged the dragon's progress against their tangle for the weapon. He caught a glint of gold and could see the steam rising. They couldn't just stand there arguing— the thing was going to roast them in just a few seconds.

"Don't shoot!" Danny cried again, "you can't shoot!"

"It's a dragon!" Tucker shouted back at him. "And it's about to kill us!" he added frantically, since Danny apparently seemed oblivious to this all important fact.

"Let go," he grunted, unsuccessfully trying to shove his friend off of him, detangle him from his bow. But Danny was fighting with a desperation that Tucker couldn't understand.

At least, not until Danny managed to grunt, "It's Sam!"

Tucker froze, sure he had heard wrong. That was-

Impossible. This was a dragon. Sam was their best friend. People didn't just… turn into dragons.

"It's Sam," Danny said again, and even if Tucker couldn't make himself believe the words, the desperation in his friend's blue eyes made it clear that he believed it. How or why he could believe something that was so obviously impossible was beyond him, but…

He was pulled back to the present when he realized his grip had loosened enough that Danny pulled the bow out of his hands. Lunging after it, he demanded, "How?"

But Danny didn't answer; they were out of time. The dragon was within hailing distance now, and the smoke was billowing around its snout, the grey smoke turning fiery gold as the setting sun caught it.

They could both see the actual flames as they built up in the dragon's chest and— Sam or not— it was clear that it was getting ready to attack them.

While they were just standing dumbly in front of it.

Tucker closed his eyes and braced for the worst, yelling as he and Danny shoved away from each other and tried to use the momentum to split up and make it to safety before they became dead men.

They stumbled away, at least having avoided immediate trampling. And they'd also managed to divide the dragon's attention. It couldn't go after two of them at once.

But Danny had Tucker's bow and no arrows. And Tucker was left with nothing but an unloaded crossbow that he didn't have time to fiddle with. And the long knife, of course, but such close quarters weaponry was laughably useless against a fire-breathing dragon. They were both completely unarmed. Not that it mattered so much to Danny, who still thought they shouldn't shoot at _the dragon coming after them_ but Tucker wanted to live to see tomorrow, thank you very much.

"So what's your big plan then, huh?" he shouted to Danny, who was running parallel to him as the dragon had to turn around behind them.

"Uhhh…" Danny replied with a glance behind him and Tucker wanted to throw his hands up in the air and scream. If he had been able to grab Danny and throw him in front of the maybe-somehow-Sam-Dragon, he might have considered it. And it would have served him right. Stripping them of their only defence without even having a plan.

"I hate you," Tucker screeched. "I hate you, Danny, and if we get out of this alive, I'm gonna kill you!"

"That's fair," Danny shouted back as he picked up his pace.

Tucker risked a glance behind them and saw the dragon gaining on them, eyes glowing a menacing purple to match the oily scales and the stone hanging from its neck.

He almost stuttered to a halt in shock, because he knew that shade, he recognized it. The eyes were blazing with inhuman hatred, but he _knew_ them and they could only belong to one person.

Suddenly, Danny's claim that their best friend was somehow a fire breathing creature didn't seem so far fetched. He didn't know how, but this dragon really was Sam.

But she was also a dragon, and now she barreled down at him, long teeth and sharpened claws gleaming. With a cry, he started forward again, and waved away Danny who had started running toward him.

"Gotta stay split up," he panted, shock and exertion taking their toll on him, but Danny understood. The only reason Sam hadn't caught up to them yet, despite the obvious advantages in bulk, was her injuries combined with the fact that she couldn't choose which of them to chase after first.

They were reaching the end of the clearing now. Double back or head into the trees?

Tucker didn't want to completely lose touch with Danny, especially not while he was still holding their only functioning weapon between them. Not that he'd necessarily be able to wield it against Sam knowing that it was her now, but…

He looked over to see what Danny was planning, and realized that he wasn't slowing down at all, but racing toward the trees like his life depended on it. Which, it probably did.

Into the woods it was, then.

An odd rasping sound made him turn around before he made it to the cover of the trees, however. Eyes went wide when he saw the flames pouring out of the dragon's mouth. Tucker threw himself to the side, and shakily picked himself up out of the grass as he watched the trees in front of him catch fire.

The dry leaves caught immediately and the dead branches followed suit not long after. The flames were already dancing merrily along the stretch of forest he'd been about to disappear into. Tucker turned around, looking for somewhere else to run when he saw Sam rear up and make the harsh rattling noise again.

This time it wasn't aimed at him.

He stared in horror as he saw Danny disappear into the trees just seconds before dragon fire blasted toward him.

"Danny!" he screamed as flames chased after his friend. There was no answer except the crackling of wood as a second section of trees caught fire.

He threw up his hand against the growing heat, and frantically wondered what to do. Danny was the one with his bow— and he gaped at the thought of his weapon going up in flames along with trees like the one it had come from, but he couldn't think about that now, not when Danny hadn't reappeared.

Danny was the one who knew what was going on here, the one who was supposed to have a plan. Danny was his best friend, damn it all, and he couldn't have been burned to a crisp by the only other person who deigned to grace them with their presence.

He couldn't-

"Danny!" he yelled again, knowing full well that he wouldn't be heard over the roar of the growing fire even if Danny was still alive to hear him.

Sam, however, had no problems hearing him at all, and turned at the noise. Her deep eyes glittered with the reflected light of the flames as she turned to stalk toward the one person she could see.

Cursing, Tucker tore his eyes away from the trees and bolted across the clearing. His fingers worked at the strap on his thigh until it came free and he pulled his backup crossbow and one of the stocky quarrels. He started loading it, pausing only to change course when Sam decided to spew fire in his direction once more.

The heat was intense as the three fires at the edge of the clearing began to spread. His only consolation at the moment was that it was going backward into the forest instead of further to each side.

This open ground provided no cover in his flight, although he knew that if he tried to take advantage of the trees, they'd soon become a blazing inferno around him. And while dragon hide would protect Sam as she chased after him, mere humans would stand no chance if they were caught in the middle of a fire like that.

He tried not to think about what that meant for Danny if he still hadn't appeared, and continued winding the crossbow back until it locked. Finally.

Tucker glanced back and realized he was running out of places to run. He made one final dash to the side, throwing off Sam's momentum as she was forced to adjust course before following him.

He turned and planted his feet to face her head on as she charged. He raised his crossbow, steadying it as best his heaving chest and shaking hands would allow, but he wasted the precious seconds he'd bought for himself as he wondered if he could really do this.

It was a dragon in front of him. A fire breather after his skin with no recognition in Sam's purple eyes. It might have killed Danny. Was about to kill him. And he was a dragon hunter.

But-

It was Sam and Danny had been sure there was something else they could do. Tucker didn't know what it was, though, and there wasn't any time for him to make another choice if he wanted to live.

She was practically on top of him now; he didn't even need to aim. He pressed the trigger, releasing the iron bolt that sped off toward the dragon that was somehow his friend.

He didn't wait to see if or where it struck. Tucker sprinted off, grabbing a second quarrel and praying— for him to live long enough to reload or not to have to use it again he didn't know.

There were twin roars of pain and outrage and Tucker looked up to see Sam rearing back in alarm. The bolt had hit, striking somewhere near her shoulder, and Tucker grimaced at the bright liquid that bubbled up around the metal shaft. He was fairly sure that it was the only reason she hadn't ripped him in half, though, so he couldn't find it in himself to be entirely sorry for it.

She writhed around the metal point embedded in her side, vainly clawing at the spike. Thankfully, she was concentrated on that instead of the person who shot it, and Tucker tried to move unobtrusively behind some cover as he wound back the second quarrel in case he'd need another shot before he could get away.

He didn't know where he could really get to, with Danny lost in a burning forest and his other best friend somehow transformed into a dragon, but…

Before he had to make a decision, though, a dark shape with a streak of white came flying out of the woods, too fast for Tucker to do more than register that there was now a second dragon on the scene. He scuttled backward, crossbow clutched firmly against his chest as he disappeared back into the lengthening shadows, far away from the two figures that tangled together.

It was a ferocious flurry of claws and scales and smoke, the grass and earth around them gouged by talon and tail and Tucker was sure he would have been torn apart by even a stray hit.

He was about to make himself scarce— there was nothing he could do against _two_ dragons, but maybe he could circle the clearing to look for Danny before the flames spread too far— when something happened.

The new dragon, the black one, clawed down Sam's neck, its deadly talons catching on the gold chain that hung there. With a cracking sound, the precious metal broke and the air around Sam appeared to explode outward in a burst of bright light.

Tucker and the other dragon were both pushed back with the force of it, grunting as they tumbled to the ground.

When he pushed to his feet once more, Tucker gaped in disbelief.

Sam was lying in the middle of the battlefield. Sam, not the dragon, but the girl. His friend. Hardly without thinking, Tucker rushed forward, kneeling by her side, worriedly hovering over her. She didn't appear to be hurt until he gently rolled her over and discovered that her right shoulder was a bloody mess.

From where he'd shot her.

At least the bolt had fallen out when she'd transformed, and the wound didn't appear too deep. She'd live, anyway, so long as he could get her out of here before the fires cut them off. She was unconscious, though, even though her breathing and heart rate were reassuringly steady when he checked.

Probably just the aftermath of the transformation, then, or the shock and blood loss. Or that's what he hoped, anyway. But he still had no clue how she'd even ended up like this or what other factors may be at play here. Sometimes there were deeper wounds than the ones that iron projectiles made, and Tucker didn't know that he could do anything about those even if he knew what they were.

The gold chain laying a few feet away blazed eerily in the firelight, its purple stone gleaming with a light from inside it. Tucker glanced at it warily, pretty sure now that he saw it that this had something to do with the fact that his friend had been flying around breathing fire.

He reached out a hand, hesitated a moment, then grabbed it and quickly stuffed it in his pocket, trying not to worry about the tingling sensation it sent shooting up his arm at the brief contact.

They could worry about that later. When they were safe and Sam had been treated. When they were out of here, away from the fire and the other dragon-

He was so stupid.

How could he forget that there was another dragon? He wheeled around to grab his crossbow— little good it would do him with the short bolt loaded and only one more backup in his pocket, but it was all he had— and leaned over Sam as protectively as possible before taking aim at the remaining dragon.

His hands were shaking and he knew they were both dead if this monster decided it wanted to finish what it started.

The black dragon wasn't moving much, though, and its glowing green eyes blinked slowly. Tucker didn't think it was injured, and hefted the crossbow higher in case it was an act to lure him into complacency.

The dragon snorted softly, fog billowing out from its nostrils, but there was no following fire. In fact, there was no fire at all, Tucker realized as he saw the frost spreading across the trampled grass.

The cold seeped into the air despite the merrily burning fire forming a wall on the other side of the clearing less than fifty yards away and Tucker shivered.

He and the dragon stared at each other, and Tucker wondered dumbly if it might actually leave without attacking. He still held out his weapon— his tiny useless weapon— but made sure not to look too offensive, just in case that set the creature off.

The dragon, in turn, slowly started pulling away, its movements slow and smooth. Tucker watched, wide-eyed, as it folded up on itself and stretched out its long neck, snout buried in the frozen grass.

He had no clue what was going on.

They stared at each other for a long moment, Tucker still wary even as he hoped that this meant the creature wanted to fight just as little as he did. He didn't know why the thing didn't just get up and fly away, then, but perhaps it knew that the quick motion of flapping wings might be enough to set off a hunter. Or perhaps it was injured and was waiting for Tucker to be the one to move.

He had just decided to pick up Sam and try to make a run for it when the dragon closed its eyes, the green light abruptly disappearing from the gathering darkness.

Tucker froze, wondering what this meant, what the dragon was planning. Half a second later, he had remembered himself and snapped the crossbow back into place with a jolt. He was breathing harshly, but the dragon didn't attack. Didn't move at all, except to curl in on itself more.

Tucker was confused even before the glade lit up with a burst of light so white it was tinged with blue. When he lowered his outstretched hand and finished blinking the stars out of his vision, he didn't know how to process what he was looking at.

The dragon was gone.

Danny was laying in its place, limbs looking far too small in the frosty indent the dragon had made.

Tucker blinked, but the scene in front of him didn't change. Sam had turned into a purple dragon and now the black one had become Danny?

What on earth?

He didn't understand. He didn't understand any of it. But he knew that there had been a dragon exactly where Danny had been just seconds before. And he also knew that there had been no golden chain in Danny's case. What that meant, he wasn't sure. But-

He wasn't going to take chances. Not with Sam's life on the line here too.

Tucker raised his crossbow again, aiming it at his best friend. His face, hard as he tried to clamp down on his warring emotions, was plenty expressive, he knew. Especially with the way Danny's face fell when he froze in place, hands carefully held out to the side in a placating, non-threatening stance.

The kid he'd grown up with, the guy he considered his brother in all but blood, had to stand there with his hands raised so Tucker wouldn't shoot him.

This was wrong. This was all sorts of wrong, but Tucker couldn't help it, couldn't stop to think about it yet. Sam was injured and the forest was on fire and Danny was- Danny had-

"What-" Tucker began before breaking off sharply when his throat closed up. He couldn't afford to slip if this was some kind of trick. In all his years living with near daily lectures from the Fentons, he'd never heard of dragons turning into people before.

Then again, he'd never heard of people turning into dragons either, and just look at Sam.

He did glance down then, actually, just to reassure himself that she was still there and human and alive. His attention snapped back up to Danny as soon as he took a step forward, though.

"Stop," he shouted, still unable to trust anything that had happened before he'd gotten an explanation for some of this.

"Tucker…" Danny pleaded and Tucker faltered because this was his best friend.

A dragon?

"Tucker, please…" Danny continued, taking another step forward. Then another. Tucker stared, like he didn't know what to do.

Danny took the still lowered weapon as a good sign and kept coming closer, as quickly as he dared and as slowly as he could force himself to move, given the state of things around them. "Tucker, it's me," he said, begging for him to listen. "I swear it's me-"

Before he could reach him, and persuade him to put the weapon aside, however, something crashed behind them. Both boys turned to see that the fire had begun spreading along the tree line much faster than they'd realized. Flames were chasing each other across the brittle branches of the forest, shooting embers into the sky as the wall of fire drew nearer.

"And I'll explain everything, I promise," Danny said, eyes darting between his friends and the looming threat. "But-"

"But we gotta get out of here," Tucker finished for him.

Danny nodded. A tree crashed, the trunk falling into the field with a resounding roar, and the heat was starting to become unbearable.

"Okay," Tucker said. "Help me get her up."

Danny rushed forward to grab one of Sam's arms and slung it over her shoulder, trying to ignore the noise she made once they finally got her between them.

Another crash and the fire grew closer, drawing in around them.

"This isn't going to work," Tucker told him. Sam was still completely out of it. She didn't need support while she walked between them, she needed to be carried. "And we're running out of places to go," he pointed out, soberly, as the ring of fire seemed to close in around them. He had no delusions that the fire wouldn't beat them to the other end of the clearing and then where could they go?

Danny frantically turned to take in the situation and had to agree with Tucker.

"Do you trust me?" he asked, raising his voice to be heard above the fire.

Tucker winced at the fallen trees loudly popping behind him as they, too, caught fire. He licked his parched lips, eyes darting around before coming back to Danny.

What else could he say, really?

"Yes," he shouted and something loosened in Danny's expression.

"Grab Sam," Danny told him, and Tucker gathered her up in his arms as best he could, staring in shock as Danny turned to face the fire.

He help up both his hands toward the forest and closed his eyes, concentrating fiercely as his hands began to glow with the same bluish white light that Tucker had seen during his earlier transformation. He remained entirely human looking this time, but after a few moments, something shot out from his hands.

The force of the stream pushed Danny back until his feet dug into the earth. He grunted but maintained the stance until the trees turned white.

It wasn't until Tucker realized how much cooler the air was that he understood what he was seeing. He stared disbelieving at the ice-covered trees in front of him.

"That's-" Tucker breathed.

Danny lowered his hands and panted as he took in his handiwork. "Not gonna be enough," he replied.

Tucker looked up again and realized that Danny was right- that he wouldn't be able to freeze enough of the fire to clear a pathway for them to escape. Even now, the ice was melting and dripping off the charred branches, sizzling and steaming as the fire determined to overwhelm it once again.

"What else?" he asked.

"I can…" Danny trailed off.

"Yes?" Tucker demanded.

Danny licked chapped lips as he took in the burning forest. "I'll fly us out," he said. "You grab on as soon as I transform."

Tucker balked, face draining as he took a step back.

"It's our only way out," Danny stressed, swallowing before risking a glance over.

Tucker believed him about that, but stared at him warily. He hadn't been a large dragon, even compared to Sam, and now he thought it was a good idea to fly with two people on his back?

"Can you handle that?" Tucker asked seriously.

Danny shook his head, not so much a denial as a dismissal. "It's our only way out," he said again, and Tucker swallowed at what that meant. It didn't really matter if Danny could do it. At this point, it was their only shot.

Tucker nodded sharply. "Okay," he shouted over the cracking of a tree trunk.

Danny's head bobbed in a jerky motion and then he took a couple steps back. The light appeared again, enveloping them both in a wave so overwhelmingly bright that Tucker had to throw his arm over his eyes as cover.

Then Danny was gone and a dragon was standing in front of him again, dark and ominous and deadly.

And Danny.

Tucker stared up with wide eyes for just a moment before rushing forward and trying to figure out how to on top of a dragon. The more pressing problem was figuring out how to get Sam on top of a dragon when she was dead weight and wouldn't be able to keep herself from sliding off.

Eventually, once Danny pressed himself as close to the earth as he could bend his ungainly scaled limbs, Tucker managed it, pulling Sam's limp form up in front of him and arranging her as securely as he could as the flames began to lick out of the forest near Danny's long spiked tail.

Danny flicked it back toward the grass, body tense and ready for the word that they could go.

"Okay," Tucker shouted, leaning forward to make himself heard over the roar of the crackling flames. Danny hugged and pushed off the ground.

Tucker was flung backward with the sheer force of the flight, as Danny's great wings stretched out to their full length and flapped heavily, struggling to get the three of them off the ground.

There were a few worrying moments when Tucker thought they wouldn't make it, that Danny would fall back to the earth, leaving his two human passengers to slide off into the flaming abyss below.

But then Danny circled upward toward the gusts of blessedly cool air that washed over them, providing sharp relief from the shimmering heat rising from the fire. The wind whistled wildly around them as they left the flames behind.

Danny turned toward the village with strained wings and Tucker sat froze, clutching Sam against him as both hands clutched a conveniently located spike on Danny's neck.

The speed and earth shrinking beneath them were new sensations to Tucker and he breathed heavily, fighting against the rising panic heightened by years of ingrained safety precautions as he realized that he was riding a dragon to safety.

He was grateful that it was all he had to do to keep him and Sam from sliding off the hard scales, leaving him no time or energy to think about any of this before Danny was touching down out of sight of the village.

He landed clumsily, and Tucker had to work quickly to slide Sam off to safety before Danny slumped to the ground. Another bright transformation and he was lying on the ground, groaning weakly as he rolled over into the grass.

"You alright, man?" Tucker asked, shifting Sam's awkward weight around him. He set up her against a tree trunk and let his aching arms rest. All he'd done was hold onto Sam- he couldn't even imagine how Danny must have felt after flying them out.

Danny panted, didn't say anything but eventually nodded, eyes closed.

Tucker leaned against the tree for a minute to catch his breath too, then leaned down to check on Sam. She was still breathing, pretty steadily, but-

"We have to get her help," he said, tearing off a strip of his shirt and wrapping it around Sam's shoulder as a makeshift bandage, and Danny blearily agreed.

Tucker grinned ruefully at him, made his way over and reached out a hand. Danny was pushing up groggily on one elbow before he noticed.

He hesitated for a moment before reaching up and accepting the help gratefully. "Thanks," he said. Tucker blinked, knowing that he wasn't just talking about this.

Tucker took in a deep breath and let go of the swirling emotions in his chest. Dragon or no, no matter what the story was here, Danny was Danny, and that was good enough for him.

And he'd saved both their hides that night, in more ways than one.

"Yeah," Tucker said, pulling him to his feet.

* * *

 **I have vague ideas for another scene or two in this universe but I don't anticipate actually writing any more, so consider this one done.**


End file.
